The invention concerns a device for building-up and discharging an annular dump of bulk material on a circular storage site.
Annular dumps are space-saving means for the storage of bulk material. They are also useful for the homogenization of mixtures of granular materials which have different properties. Such a homogenization is necessary, for example, in the manufacture of cement when the starting material must have a composition within relatively narrow limits. This composition seldom occurs naturally. It must therefore be produced by mixing starting materials of different composition.
The devices for the building-up and discharging of annular dumps of bulk materials of this kind include at least one jib of a dumping device, rotatable about a vertical axis in the center of the circular storage site, at least one feed belt the discharge end of which is situated above the dumping device in the center of the device, at least one removal device which can be swivelled about said vertical axis and means situated in the neighborhood of the center by means of which the bulk material removed is fed to a conveyor belt passing through said vertical axis.
Known devices of this type generally include a fixed central component which consists, for example, of steel concrete and on which at least the jib of the dumping device is mounted on the bearings. Concrete pillars of this type require expensive foundations which must make it possible to transfer bulk material removed on to the conveyor belt which is led away through the foundation or below them. One example of the prior known devices known to applicant is illustrated in the U.S. patent to Fischer No. 3,509,985.